How Much Cereal Should I Give My 5 Month Old in His Formula

Yes, add a bit more and as he grows, continue. My son was the same way at that age; and he grew into a strong healthy & happy Marine! Your baby is hungry now! He's a growing boy! Good luck and may God bless you both!
Truly,
Kathy N.

5 months is too young to start on solids. A baby should not start solids till 6 months. It helps reduce food allergies in the long run. Have you just tried to up his amount of forumla?

As far as sleeping thru the night. My oldest son was sleeping thru the night @ 6 weeks old. My 2nd son has NEVER slept thru the night and he is almost 13 months. Every baby is different.

There was a period around 6 or 7 months with my oldest where he would wake up in the middle of the night. I started to give him water instead of making him a bottle @ what ever hr he woke up. This lasted 1 week before he stopped waking up in the middle of the night.

Good Luck.

I completely agree with Julie. Cereal should not be given in a bottle. If your baby is waking up there's a reason. It might be that he's hungry or he could just want to be comforted by you. In my experience (and I have 4 kids, so you can take my advise or leave it) babies start sleeping thru the night when "they" are ready. Out of my four, only 2 of them started sleeping thru the night before the age of one. My first two were well past three when they no longer woke up. So you see it might not even have to do with an empty stomach. My older two were getting 3 meals and snacks everyday and still continued to wake up at night. I really hope you don't continue to feed your son cereal in his bottle as it is a choking hazard. Talk to you doctor he might have some other advice. Also any book by Dr.Sears would have good advice =)

P.,
I'm going to add my opinion that cereal should never be added to a bottle! All the current research supports this so if you received this advice, it was probably from someone that parented before the advice changed.
Having said that, I have a son who will be 5 months old in a week and a half. He still gets up at around midnight and 4 am. (Part of this because he goes to bed at 8 pm and sleeps until 8 am and I should tweek his schedule.) All babies DO NOT sleep through the night! I'm back working full time now and it's exhausting, but it's what he needs so I do it! My first child did not sleep through the night until she was 9 months old and I guess I'm not expecting anything this time, which probably makes it easier to deal with.
Hard as it may be ~ ENJOY those quiet middle of the night cuddle times!!! They will soon pass and nothing really replaces how quiet the house is in the middle of the night and the warm snuggling and pure comfort that you are providing to your little one in the wee hours of the morning! If you keep disruptions (no extra lights, no diaper changes) to a minimum, I can do a feeding in about 10 minutes and we both go right back to sleep.
As far as feeding, I started my son off last week with 1 TBSP of cereal mixed with enough breastmilk/formula to make the cereal loose. If your son is good with the swallowing and having the spoon in his mouth and seems to want more, increase accordingly and thicken the cereal. Start once a day and add a feeding when you feel ready. Pretty soon your son will also be ready for you to add Stage 1 veggies and fruits to his diet, too. (I usually did these at lunch first and kept cereal for breakfast and dinner.)
Good luck... and enjoy all the moments!

Hi, First of all cereal should NEVER be put in your child's bottle.......The baby can choke. Cereal is your baby's first "food" and should be mixed in a bowl and fed with a spoon...........at 5 months old you can give the baby ceral in a bowl along with the bottle for breakfast and you can begin giving baby food for lunch and dinner along with bottles in addition to the first morning bottle and nighttime bottle. At 5 months old your baby is hungry and ready to begin EATING.....you should confirm what I am saying with your pediatrician but I am just telling you what I was told by mine with my two children and that is what I did....good luck and God Bless

P.,
At my son's four month check up and our pediatrician told us that around five months we could add 1 tsp. of cereal per ounce of formula/breast milk. If your son drinks 5 oz. he should have 5 tsps. of cereal in his bottle.
I began adding cereal to his bottle and in order for the nipple not to become clogged we had to switch to a larger nipple. The larger nipple counteracted the cereal and the flow ended up being the same as with just breastmilk and a smaller nipple.
This is my third child and I have never been told by my pediatrician not to put cereal in their bottle. Both my pediatrician in Virginia and now the one down here has told me that it was okay just as long as you are not using a small nipple
Also, whether you are breastfeeding or formula feeding, the time that you decide to introduce solids is your personal choice. I have exclusively breastfed all three of my children but beginning around five months they have started to want more than just milk. My pediatrician told me that when you are eating something and they start opening their mouths and reaching out for what you have it is time to start introducing solids.
Perhaps, if you don't feel comfortable with putting cereal in your baby's bottle you could spoon feed him cereal in the morning or in the evening and that might help him feel fuller throughout the entire time.
No matter what - it is your decision and what you feel comfortable with as a mother. If you have doubts check with your pediatrician and go from there.
I hope this helps!!! T. V.

he should be just breastfeeding

P., my advise, give the baby 3 teaspoonful and make sure is a little warm when you give it to the baby, also shake the bottle well before, that way the cereal will get
softer and easy to swalow. I guarantee you that baby will sleep all noght like an angel. R.

We never gave our daughter cereal in her bottle. I made it separately with formula and feed it to her out of a bowl. Our baby was just as full at night with a bottle without cereal. I just made sure she had a bottle before bed and she was fine. However at 5 months we were also feeding her 1 jar of baby food twice a day and I think that helped too. Try that if you haven't already. We gave her cereal in the morning and then one jar at either lunch or dinner. Start with stage 1 and then once they have tried everything once you can go to stage 2.

I have a 7 month old and I don't give him any cereal. I've read and heard from other moms that non is necessary and that many times babies may develop allergies or digestive problems. Cereal or no cereal the pediatrician told me that this has nothing to do with babies making up at night. I breast feed him and now incorporate formula at night because my production is running low. People said that with formula he would sleep through the night... and he still wakes up. I really don't think you should give any cereal. I hope this helps! =0)

Like the other mom's have said - NEVER give the baby his cereal in a bottle - any good pediatrician SHOULD have told you this! mix cereal w/ the formula and feed it to him w/ a spoon - he'll make a mess - trust me - but it's better than the alternative!

Good luck!

I know a lot of parents put food in their baby's bottle and I strongly oppose this practice. The only thing that should go into a bottle is liquid. If your baby is taking cereal at any time, it should be fed to him/her with a spoon so that baby learns that food is given with a spoon...not a bottle. It is a myth that a baby will sleep through the night if given food before bedtime. At 5 months, your baby is getting up during the night because he is genuinely hungry ~~ not because you didn't give him plenty to eat at bedtime. Babies will typically begin sleeping through longer periods during the night by the time they are 6 months old.

My first two daughters were exclusively breastfed and my third child was breastfed and supplemented with formula. All three of my children DID get up during the night to feed...no matter if they were breatfeeding or formula fed. Please re-consider mixing food in your baby's bottle.

Hello P.. I have three children ranging from 1yrs- 7yrs. With all my baby's when it came time to feeding cereal, I would make it without worrying about how much to make or give. You see, babies tend to have different appetites. I would make it to where they would eat until they were done. If there was leftovers in the bowl, I just threw it out. Sometimes my children would eat more one day, or at one feeding than the next. I tried to put cereal in the bottles like you are doing, but I found that it just clogged up the nipples and they were not getting an adequate amount. How many bottles does your child drink throughout the day? Do you think that he may be waking up at night because he might be hungry? try to feed him cereal a few times during the day, and give him a bottle maybe 2 hours before sending him to bed. Does he have a scheduled bedtime? These ar ejust a few questions to think about. Bath before bed will usually calm a child and help them to sleep a little longer too. I hope you get your problem resolved.

OK, everyone seems to have an opionion on putting rice cereal in the bottle (or not). My ped. said it's ok. We put in 4.5 teaspoons of cereal in each of her bottles along with 6 oz. water and 3 scoops formula.

Here's my question WHY? besides allergies should the ceral NOT be put into the bottle w/ formula?

I wouldn't give cereal to any child. It has no nutritional value and tastes horrible.

My advice is to stop the cereal. It won't make him sleep longer, he is still too young. Feeding babies solids before they are ready is not healthy. It is recommended to wait AT LEAST until 6 months and then until they show signs of been interested.

Up to a year old formula should be your baby's primary form of nutrition, NOT food.

although i never put cereal in either of my kids bottles, i have many friends that did. Their kids are fine- and some of them were told by their ped. to do so for medical reasons. So maybe talk to your ped. about what he recommends because your baby's are different than anyone else's.

That being said, I think it is a myth that putting cereal in a bottle helps a baby sleep through the night. Every baby is different. One baby may sleep through the night with cereal, another baby will not. It doesn't matter. Your baby has a sleep pattern and when he is ready, he will sleep through the night. My son slept through the night (on and off) starting at 3 months. With every milestone his sleep pattern changed. My daughter on the other hand has yet to sleep through the night and wakes up sometimes more than twice a night- she is 7 months old. We just roll with it-what can you do? :>)

It should be a teaspoon per ounce. So if you're giving him 5 oz of milk, put 5 teaspoons in. =)

I have twins that are now 16 months old I would do a teaspoon for every oz. that you give gim. At five months you should be
able to intoduce cereal in the morning which might help as well, Congrats and good luck to you!!!

Giving him more or less cereal is not going to necessarily change whether he sleeps through the night. That is a myth, it does not work for every child, they are all different. If you are just asking because you are not sure if it is enough that is usually if he can handle the thickness. My son didn't start sleeping through the night until he was about 6 months and the Dr's consider sleeping through the night about 5 to 6 hrs at that age. Hang in there it does get better and then they wake up all over again sometimes, it is forever changing. Good Luck. www.DiscoveryToysLink.com/LisdaRyan

Will giving formula or solids at night help baby to sleep better?
http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/solids-sleep.html